The Geek Address

Before he became a legitimate director with films like ‘A Simple Plan’ and ‘Spiderman’, Sam Raimi was the master of B-Grade schlock. His Evil Dead trilogy spawned an enormous cult following for its ingenuity, gore and humour. Evil Dead 2 is a masterful film. If you haven’t experienced the movie, prepare yourself for some quirky and genuinely scary blood-letting.’, ‘2005-01-01 16:06:34’, ‘Sam Raimi began making films when he was a teenager, armed with his silent 8mm camera. “At that stage, it wasn’t even about making bad movies - we were making movies nobody could understand,” Raimi said. “The movies had to improve, just so people could understand what we were trying to tell them.” When he was at high school, he met Bruce Campbell and formed a friendship that has lasted to this day. The two collaborated on numerous short films, ultimately teaming up to make Evil Dead in 1981. The film was an instant classic and spawned another two films, the most interesting of which was Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn.

People who saw the first film were probably a little bit confused when they sat down to watch the sequel. In the original film, five friends stay overnight in a dilapidated farmhouse where they discover The Book of the Dead and a tape recorder which contains translated passages from the demonic text. When some buffoon hits the play button, demonic hilarity ensues. Ashly ‘Ash’ Williams - played by Bruce Campbell - is the only survivor. Upon viewing the sequel, you’re probably going to feel an odd sense of deja vu. In the first five minutes of the film, you get a condensed version of the original movie: Ash arrives at the cabin, discovers the book, turns on the tape recorder, all manner of satanic kookiness occurs and his girlfriend is decapitated with a shovel. What the…? Because Raimi was unable to secure the rights to Evil Dead in order to show flashbacks, be decided to compress the events of that movie into the first five minutes of Evil Dead 2. Makes sense, hey? Evil Dead 2 is more a parody than anything else so it doesn’t really matter.

Sam Raimi has frequently expressed his admiration of The Three Stooges. Evil Dead 2 has more than its share of Moe, Larry and Curly, particularly when Ash runs around the house with his girlfriend’s decapitated head attached to his hand. Raimi also manages to throw a few good scares into the mix. The decomposing woman that attacks Ash in the fruit cellar is particularly memorable. For fans of retro special effects, you’ll also be treated to some outstanding stop motion animation. 

Raimi, an unrepentant film geek, pays tribute to Alfred Hitchcock a couple of times throughout the film: the woman in the fruit cellar and the cow skull in the work shed which is illuminated by the swinging, blood-drenched light bulb are both references to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

The conclusion to the film, which seems a little inevitable, is nonetheless satisfying/

Best line: Swallow this. 

Worst line: Hey, what do you say we have some champagne, huh, baby? After all, I’m a man and you’re a woman… at least last time I checked.